John McCrea
John McCrea (born 1966 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a comics artist best known for his collaborations with writer Garth Ennis. His earliest work was influenced by John Byrne and Alan Davis. In 1988, after a few years of drawing television and toy tie-ins, he illustrated Ennis's debut, the political series Troubled Souls, in Crisis, in a realistic style, using acrylic paints and mixed media, but its sequel, the farce For a Few Troubles More, showed him moving a more cartoony direction, a trend which continued with his occasional series Carla Allison in Deadline. He broke into American comics in 1993, drawing Ennis's run on DC Comics's The Demon, followed by its spin-off, Hitman, from 1996 to 2001, on which McCrea developed a versatile drawing style equally at home with goofy humour, action, and subtle characterisation. Hitman issue 34 won the Eisner Award for best single issue in 1999. His wilder, more exaggerated cartooning found an outlet with Dicks, a miniseries spinning off from For a Few Troubles More into more outrageous dialect, sexual and toilet humour, published by Caliber in 1997, with a sequel, Dicks II, from Avatar in 2002. Since Hitman finished he has drawn a variety of characters for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse Comics, 2000AD and others. Bibliography * "Fast Forward" (with Hilary Robinson, in 2000AD #615, 1989) * Troubled Souls (with Garth Ennis, in Crisis #15-27, 40 & 46, 1989-1990) * "Wyrmwood" (with Malachy Coney, in Crisis #29, 1989) * "Her parents" (with Mark Millar, in Crisis #31, 1989) * Chopper: "Earth, Wind and Fire" (with Garth Ennis, in Judge Dredd Megazine #1.01-1.06, 1990) * Judge Death: "Masque of the Judge, Death" (with Si Spencer, in Judge Dredd Mega-Special #4, 1991) * Middenface McNulty: "Wan Man an' His Dug" (with Alan Grant and Tony Luke, in Judge Dredd Megazine #1.15-1.20, 1991-1992) * Judge Dredd: **"The Craftsman" (with Garth Ennis, in 2000AD #817, 1993) **"Last Respects" (with Gordon Rennie, in 2000AD #1389, 2004) **"Placebo" (with Rufus Dog, in 2000AD #1405, 2004) * The Demon #40,42-48,50,52-60 (with Garth Ennis, DC Comics, 1993-1995) * Hitman (with Garth Ennis, 60 issues, DC, specials: Annual #1, issue #1,000,000, 1996-2001) **''Hitman'' (collects #1-3 + The Demon Annual #2 + Batman Chronicles #4, 1997) **''Hitman: 10,000 Bullets'' (collects #4-8, 1998) **''Hitman: Local Heroes'' (collects #9-14 + Annual #1, 1999) **''Hitman: Ace of Killers'' (collects #15-22, 2000) **''Hitman: Who Dares Wins'' (collects #23-28, 2001) * Dicks (with Garth Ennis, 1997-2005) * Preacher Special: Tall in the Saddle (1 issue, inks only, with Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, DC/Vertigo 1999) * Wonder Woman Annual vol. 2 #8 (with Doselle Young, DC, 1999) * Superman 80-Page Giant: "How To Be A Super-Hero" (with Garth Ennis, DC, 1999) * Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority (with Mark Millar, 5-issue mini-series, Wildstorm, 2000) * Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #7: "In Springfield, No-One Can Hear You Scream" (with Garth Ennis, 2001) * Star Wars Tales: "Trooper" (with Garth Ennis & Jimmy Palmiotti, in #10, 2001, collected in Star Wars Tales Vol 3, Dark Horse Comics, 2003) * The Monarchy (with Doselle Young, 12 issues, Wildstorm, 2001-2002) * Superboy #92-100 * Spider Man's Tangled Web #1-3: "The Coming of the Thousand" (with Garth Ennis, 2001, collected edition, 2002) * Spider-Man: "Get Kraven" (pencils with Ron Zimmerman, and inks by James Hodgkins, 5 issues, Marvel, 2002) * Hulk Smash! (with Garth Ennis, Marvel, 2 issues, 2001, collected in Incredible Hulk Vol. 7: Dead Like Me, August 2004) * Sinister Dexter: "Vircade" (with Dan Abnett, in 2000 AD #1431, 2005) * The Atheist (with Phil Hester, Image Comics, 2005) * The 99 (with Fabian Nicieza, Teshkeel Comics, 2007-ongoing) * Theseus battling the Minotaur (one-shot, Lerner Publishing Group) External links Links to other wikis *John McCrea at Wikipedia *John McCrea at the DC Database *John McCrea at the Marvel Database *John McCrea at ComicVine Other links *John McCrea's website *McCrea interviewed by P. J. Holden at 2000AD Review Category:Artists Category:Creators from Belfast Category:Creators based in Britain